On Thu, 22 Sep 2016 19:20:52 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
tim... wrote:
It's a nonsense to suggest that this will be unique to Uber's cars

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/featur...lf-driving-fle
t-arrives-in-pittsburgh-this-month-is06r7on

Of course those cars still have someone sitting behind the wheel so the
whole thing is nothing more than a marketing gimmick. I'll give it a couple
of years before they quietly revert back to human drivers until the technology
is properly ready.

--
Spud

On Fri, 23 Sep 2016 08:42:57 +0000 (UTC), d wrote:

On Thu, 22 Sep 2016 19:20:52 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
tim... wrote:
It's a nonsense to suggest that this will be unique to Uber's cars

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/featur...lf-driving-fle
t-arrives-in-pittsburgh-this-month-is06r7on

Of course those cars still have someone sitting behind the wheel so the
whole thing is nothing more than a marketing gimmick. I'll give it a couple
of years before they quietly revert back to human drivers until the technology
is properly ready.

Yes, it's still at the alpha test stage, and human intervention will
be needed from time to time at the moment. During this test phase,
they actually have two staff on board, one a driver to intervene if
needed, and the other keeping notes on all that happens. The
technology will take several years to mature, and will only be usable
unsupervised where there are very detailed maps, which largely don't
exist yet.

The optimists expect unmanned cabs to be on the road in the early
2020s, but probably only in areas that have the detailed street maps
(much more detailed than Google Maps). So Uber would only offer one if
the journey is entirely within the mapped area (and I wouldn't expect
London to be one of the first cities to get them). I presume that
they'll have a different product name (ie, along with UberX, UberXL,
UberBLACK, UberSUV, UberLUX, UberPOOL, etc) at a lower price, so
customers can choose whether or not they want one.